Head of Hair

In order to ward off hair care problems you are advised to adhere to the following 10 principles:

1. Do not use any fake methods and keep yourself away from using spurious hair care products. Most of such products create only frustrations.

2. Try to leave the cutting demands to your hair care professional.  Do not attempt it yourself.

3. Get away from excess sun, chlorine and saline water in summer.  Unlimited exposure in the sun can create damage  on  your hair, even if you use the best hair care products.

4. You are advised not to use clarifying hair care products more than once a week. They may lessen the moisture and oil content.

5. Visit a hair care salon only on the basis of a referral from a trusted person. Selecting a salon simply because it is on the advertisements is not advisable.

6. Resist the idea of buying hair color that comes in a box.

7. Do not stick to a style that is outdated, though you feel change might be bad. As time goes on styles change, and with good reason too. Adopt a new style that keeps you in rhythm with the current trends.

8. Never use a clothes iron on your hair.  This practice went out with the 1970s. Straightening irons are widely available to properly style your hair.

9. Never brush your hair while it is wet.  Also, do not pull it.  Putting too much tension will cause the hair to break.  Wear no tight styles beyond a certain time if you do not have ethnic hair.

10. If you do not want a very short hair cut in the near future,  try to avoid lemon juice or spurious hair care products that are made to lighten hair with the sun.

Hair care for men did not have a considerable share in the beauty industry till recently.  Now that the male sect has whole heartedly accepted its importance, men’s grooming centers are fast developing throughout the world.  But the availability of men’s hair care products is limited in the market.  It is because people still nourish the thought that men do not care much about their hair.

But there is hope.  Real men have already started realizing that grooming makes them more attractive to offer a challenge to females.  Metrosexuals can be considered as fine examples to this change. Men now are conscious about getting care for their appearance, including their hair.

The main part of male grooming is the face.  Hundreds of hair styles are available for men now.  Men insist on having the hair styles of their favorite celebrities.  Earlier, men used to apply gel on their hair to get the required style.  But these men are not bothered about the type of hair gel or pomade being used.  So many problematic situations originate here.  The need to men’s natural hair care, hair loss prevention tips, bald head care etc. are unanswered still.

Though the resources are limited, many ventures are in full swing heralding the fulfillment of needs of hair care for men.  Of course men deserve it.  Online resources have a big say on this because men shun going to their friends for hair tips.   They want to learn discreetly.  The importance of online resources lay here.  It will make them get proper advice to get access to products according to their requirements easily.

In summer, the hair becomes grungy and tricky.  You have to change the hair style and the hair care products according to the change of seasons.  More care has to be devoted to hair maintenance in summer than in any other season. The accumulated sweat during summer’s hot climate demands more attention to your hair than winter.

The hair is made up of protein and keratin.  Therefore, a high protein content diet helps your hair grow nice and thick.  It will also solve many of your hair problems.  If you take timely precautions, it will safeguard the growth of hair and will make your hair smooth, silky and shining.  Proper medication according to the necessity will make your hair free from dandruff.  Applying a suitable oil to your hair is also good and it will make it grow healthier.

A hair mask has a higher concentration level of nutrients than a conditioner. The moisture content in the hair mask will give additional benefit to your bad hair.  Using it once a month is better than using the conditioner frequently.

If the hair condition is bad, you are advised to apply the hair mask.  It helps to get more shine and appearance to your hair.  There are different brands of hair masks available in the market.  You can also prepare hair masks at home with natural ingredients. By using a hair mask, your hair would become more flexible and manageable.

Ingredients like honey, egg, almond, yogurt, olive oil etc, used as hair mask, will do wonders to your hair.  Fruits are also considered to be excellent hair masks.

Many fascinating hair styles are seen in the hair style scenario. Curly hairstyles suit short hair, whereas, distinct styles are there to enhance hair from medium length to very lengthy ones and from formal occasions to informal occasions. The curls should be managed with utmost care and expertise.  Otherwise, you may not get the overall control of it.  A totally ruined version of the style will be the result.

You have to select the right hair care products to manage the style of your curly  or wavy hair.  Four types of curly hair products are available in the market.  There is one shampoo that enhances your curls and makes it very shiny.  The second one is a conditioner that is designed to lessen frizz and to enhance hair shine. Curly enhancer is the third curly hair product.  It will tighten your natural curls and does not make it frizzy. The last one is a curl controller, which gives curly or wavy hairstyles.  This product is used only on dry hair.

Always use a comb or a pick to give a style to your curly or wavy hair.  Brushes should not be used as they will make your curly hair frizz out. Loose curls can be made by scrunching your hair.  It is dried using a large hot roller after a bath. Wrapping your hair around a pencil and then drying it with a diffuser of small hot roller will create tighter curls.  Then finish it off with the use of a convenient hairspray.

In order to take care of our bodies we add good nutritious food in the diet, so that our health will be improved.  But many of us do not give much care to keep our hair healthy and good looking.  In order to have lavish hair, we must comprehend what kind of hair we have already got.  This awareness will enable us to find the corresponding hair care product that will be ideal for our hair.

You must identify, initially, what type of hair you have. Get to know whether it is thick or thin.  Or is it curly or straight?  Sometimes it may be short and oily.  Otherwise it may be dry hair, but long.  Whatever it is, identify it first.  Then only you could begin the treatment.

There are hundreds of hair care products in the market.  It will be really a task to find out a suitable one.  Selecting an applicable product means eliminating the unwanted products which do not serve the purpose.  It also explains how far you want to take care of your hair.  If the product you buy has high alcohol content, then it will harm your dry hair. Always concentrate on buying a practical hair are product.

You may find out a serum hair care product in the medical store, which can be used to treat curly hair, or you may get a thickening shampoo to treat your thin hair.  Apart from the treatment, the product should make your hair look graceful too.  Keep this in mind when you go for a hair care product.

Some are hairy, some are bald;
Some are scary, some are old.

A funny rhyme is a good thing to start speaking about rather serious things. This time it’s going to be hair growth cycle and its stages.

So why in the world do we have to take care of our hair? To go to hairdressers every month or so, to think of stunning hair styles on special occasions, to wash, comb and brush our hair? To smell and touch (if not to chew) it? And why do we pity the bald ones after all? Because it grows… and falls out. Yeap, it grows and falls out all the time. That’s what keeps the whole process going.

The common rate of hair growth is about a half of inch a month. All in all, there is about  a hundred thousand hairs growing on the average head. Hair grows from the dermal papilla (the bottom of the hair root), which produces new cells for hair growth. These cells are initially soft, but they are hardened as they come out to the scalp’s surface. Each hair usually has a life cycle of one to seven years. Why so? Because each hair follicle sooner or late enters a period of rest. And what actually happens at the moment is that the hair simply falls out forever. Yet to be replaced and regrown by another one, which is going to go through the same cycle of 1 to 7 years of growth.

In scientific terms, the growing stage of the hair is called anagen. The transitional stage when the hair follicle starts going to rest is called catagen (usually up to 2 weeks). The resting stage is called telogen (about 3 months). This is when we lose our hair. As a matter of fact, there is a constant daily loss of 50–100 hairs. Fortunately, not all follicles are in the telogen stage at the same time. Otherwise…

None are hairy, all are bald!

As with three types of hair layers, there are also three types of hair that can be found on our bodies.

Amazingly, when we were even far from being born we already had hair on our skin. This hair is called lanugo hair and it is only found only on human fetuses. This is the thinnest type of all.

Another one is the so called vellus hair. It currently grows on our body. Comparing to lanugo hair, this type is a little bit thicker, but has the same structure.

Finally, terminal hair is the third type. It is the thickest and strongest of all and, as you have probably guessed, it makes up our heads of hair, beards and moustaches, eyebrows and lashes.

All our hair is dead, if we can put it so. Well, not really, of course. But what’s for sure is that it has no nerve endings inside. So it never hurts when our hair is cut through, ruled, treated, permed, bleached, dyed or whatever. Though, we can feel when somebody pulls our hair. What’s the trick here? The thing is that our hair is rooted in the scalp and it is more or less toughly sitting (how toughly – depends on the hair and scalp condition) in a small sack called the hair follicle. Nerve endings connected to the hair root unmistakably tell us when our hair is being pulled and whatever.

Everyone being cold or frigtened at least once had goose-flesh. This interesting experience can be explained by the activity of arrector pili muscles, which are attached to the hair root and squeeze together to pull the hair straight on such occasions.

One more thing that is found attached to the hair root and follicle is the sebaceous gland. The function of it is to produce natural oil (lubricant) for hair called sebum. When too much sebum is produced, the scalp and hair will be too greasy, and, on the contrary, too little sebum will make the hair and scalp dry and lifeless. We also know the unpleasant word seborrhea that stands for a headskin diosorder that affects the sebum gland.

Well, lets take a closer look at our scalp. Actually, it is has the outer and the inner layers. The epidermis is the outer, protective layer. As a matter of fact, it is constantly renewing and shedding itself. So, there is one more unpleasant word dandruff that stands for another disorder when the epidermiss is being renewed too excessively.

The dermis is an inner layer of the scalp that is thick and complex as regards its structure and constituents. In reality this is the place where all hair follicles, nerve endings, sebaceous and sweat glands, and blood capillaries and vessels are found. Our hearts pump blood that brings essential nutrients and oxygen to the dermis, while its blood capillaries and vessels push blood further into hair follicles to feed the dermal papilla. Here is a simple rule: the more blood goes towards the hair papilla, the more our hair will grow.

Generally speaking, there are 3 layers, which every hair is made up of. The cuticle is an outside layer. It is flat and thin. The cortex, or the middle layer, is the main part of the hair. It is usually thick and firm. The medulla is a inner layer that goes thinly through the middle of the hair. Let’s have a look at all three layers in more detail.

Cuticle. The cuticle is commonly comprised of overlapping scales of about ten layers. These scales are just like tiles of a roof and their edges all lying away from your head. These scales are semitransparent and, thus, we can see the hair color through them. If they are intact and folded closely, the hair will look very healthy, lustrous and shiny (just like glass). But if the scales have been unfolded and broken and harmful substances have been absorbed into the cortex, the hair will appear rough, fragile and lifeless.

Cortex. As we have already said, this is the main part of the hair that is placed under the cuticle. The cortex is comprised of fibres or strands that are toughly intertissued together. They are rather flexible and can be significantly stretched and return to the original length with no adverse consequences. The color of hair is defined by melanin and pheomelanin, the main color pigments that are placed in the cortex.

Speaking precisely of the cortex structure, it is made of keratin, a protein that itself is comprised of amino acid units. These units are arranged in polypeptide chains that are long and coiled. The coils of polypeptide chains are held together by two main types of bonds. They are the temporary bonds that can be easily broken and rejoined and the permanent bonds (also known as disulphide bonds), which are very tough and can be broken only by strong chemical substances.

Medulla. It is the most inner layer of the hair shaft, though, it’s function is not absolutely clear yet. Sometimes this layer is even absent in some types of hair.